Gorsuch: If Your Boss Says to Endanger Your Health, Do It or Risk Being Fired

Labor News

The boss’s orders come before a worker’s health, according to Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. That was the gist of Gorsuch’s dissent in a case in which a truck driver was stranded with broken equipment in subzero temperatures late at night, waiting for a replacement who was delayed for how long he did not know. The driver’s supervisor told him to keep waiting despite his heater also being broken, and wait he did, until:

At 1:18 am — nearly two hours after first calling Road Assist — Maddin was awakened by a cell-phone call from his cousin. The cousin became alarmed by how Maddin sounded; he seemed to be shivering, and his speech was slurred. Maddin straightened up in the cab and noticed that his skin was “crackling” from the cold, his torso was numb, and he couldn’t feel his feet, according to the administrative review board ruling. Maddin hung up with his cousin and called TransAm’s Road Assist unit again. He was told to “hang in there.”

According to the review board opinion, Maddin “tried to follow this suggestion but became fearful of losing his feet, dying, and never seeing his family again.” After another half-hour with no relief, he called his TransAm supervisor, reporting his physical symptoms which, by then, also included trouble breathing. Maddin explained that he wanted to unhook the trailer from the cab and drive to a gas station. The supervisor ordered him, however, according to the review board decision, “to either drag the trailer with its frozen brakes or stay where he was,” warning that the company could be fined if Maddin left the trailer unattended. …